Tales of the City: Tales of the City, Book 1

For more than three decades Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City has blazed its own trail through popular culture...from a groundbreaking newspaper serial, to a classic novel, to a television event that entranced millions around the world. The first of six novels about the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane, Tales of the City is both a sparkling comedy of manners and an indelible portrait of an era that changed forever the way we live.

A Home at the End of the World

It was the start of my second new life, in a city that had a spin of its own - a wilder orbit inside the earth's calm blue-green whirl. New York wasn't open to the hopelessness and lost purpose that drifted around lesser places.... Meet Bobby, Jonathan and Clare. Three friends, three lovers, three ordinary people trying to make a place for themselves in the harsh and uncompromising world of the '70s and '80s.

The Swimming Pool Library

This novel centres on the friendship of William Beckwith, a young gay aristocrat who leads a life of privilege and promiscuity, and the elderly Lord Nantwich, who is searching for someone to write his biography.

The Stranger's Child

In the late summer of 1913 the aristocratic young poet Cecil Valance comes to stay at 'Two Acres', the home of his close Cambridge friend George Sawle. The weekend will be one of excitements and confusions for all the Sawles, but it is on George's sixteen-year-old sister Daphne that it will have the most lasting impact, when Cecil writes her a poem which will become a touchstone for a generation, an evocation of an England about to change for ever.

Like People in History: A Gay American Epic

Stonewall Cousins, Roger and Alistair, become lifelong friends when they meet as boys in 1954. After both discovering their homosexuality, their lives intersect against the backdrop of 20th Century gay culture, from the beachboy surfer days of the 1960's, to the Greenwich Village AIDS activism in the 1990's.

The Charioteer

After surviving the Dunkirk retreat, Laurie Odell, a young homosexual, critically examines his unorthodox lifestyle and personal relationships, as he falls in love with a young conscientious objector and becomes involved with a circle of world-weary gay men.

Publisher's Summary

Set in the 1980s against the backdrop of a swiftly gentrifying Manhattan, The Lost Language of Cranes tells the story of 25-year-old Philip, who realizes he must come out to his parents after falling in love for the first time with a man. Philip's parents are facing their own crisis: pressure from developers and the loss of their longtime home. But the real threat to this family is Philip's father's own struggle with his latent homosexuality, realized only in his Sunday afternoon visits to gay porn theaters.

Philip's admission to his parents and his father's hidden life provoke changes that forever alter the landscape of their worlds.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of David Leavitt's book, you'll also get an exclusive Jim Atlas interview that begins when the audiobook ends.

This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.

If you could sum up The Lost Language of Cranes in three words, what would they be?

Hopeful, Desperate, Grey. Hopeful because at the end there's a thin veil of hope for all the characters. Desperate because fear is at the basis of many of the relationship in the novel. Grey because that's the color that comes to my mind if I think about the characters, the setting, the plot.

What did you like best about this story?

This is a bildungsroman for a young gay man and, at the same time, for a middle-aged man. They both have their path to follow and in the end they are on the same road.

Have you listened to any of Jonathan Davis’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The Windup Girl. He's a very good performer. With that book I followed along with the text and his work was very, very good.

If you could take any character from The Lost Language of Cranes out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Jerene, of course. :-)

Any additional comments?

For a gay man, this is a must, Like "Maurice" by Forster. Even if you are not gay, there's plenty about relationships that makes the few hours spent reading the book well spent.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Report Inappropriate Content

If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.